Highlights
Corn and beans were due for a downturn correction and the Pro Farmer Tour moving into Iowa yesterday was the trigger for profit taking on longs. Afterall, Iowa has more acres of corn and beans than any state and the Iowa weather was perceived to have been better than any where except Wisconsin.
Reuters' Ag Reporter, Karen Braun, summed of Iowa's crop this way:
Iowa corn yield comes in at 183.81 bu/acre, down 3.6% from last year's tour but even with the 3 yr avg. Pod counts for soybeans are also down 3.6% on the year but a little better than the recent average.
Overnight market action indicates the market was expecting better yields or simply knows prices have not slowed demand enough given the world's supply problems. Have you been paying attention to those weekly broiler hatch numbers?
European fertilizer giant Yara International says that record gas prices are forcing it to cut its European ammonia capacity utilization to about 35%.